Sherdog Rewind: Looking Back at Kimo’s Cross, Royce Gracie & More

Here are just a few of the anecdotes he shared with host Jack
Encarnacao:

Gentry on UFC 2 and what happens when referees can’t
intervene: “For the second event, [John McCarthy] was
asked to be the referee but was told he cannot stop a fight on his
own accord. … I think the fight with Orlando Wiet
really stands out because Orlando Wiet [was] a competitive muay
Thai kickboxer and had obviously spent his time in the ring.
Basically at one point he thought enough was enough and even turned
around and held up his hands [after battering his opponent].
Everybody was like, ‘No, you’ve got to keep on going.’ He just kind
of looked like, ‘Are you serious?’ and kind of went back with the
elbows and knees and everything else. You saw a lot of that really
in that second event. John wasn’t really able to do things he
certainly wanted to do, but of course he threatened that he would
never have anything to do with the event again if he couldn’t
basically make those tough decisions.”

On how wild UFC 3 was: “You had Ken [Shamrock]
dropping out, so he didn’t really lose, and you had Royce [Gracie]
dropping out, and he didn’t really lose, and you had this
tremendous force with Kimo and then you had this police officer
[Steve
Jennum] come out of nowhere -- you couldn’t make this stuff up.
It was really, really incredible just how that whole event came
together. There were arguments and all kinds of stuff going on in
the street. I remember Art Davie nearly getting into a fight with
Joe Son. …
A lot of the stuff that Joe Son was doing, jumping up and down and
just acting like a jackass, Relson [Gracie] nearly got into it with
him several times out in the hallway.”

On Kimo walking to the Octagon with a cross on his back and
whether that was SEG’s idea: “In fact it wasn’t. I did
talk with several people and Art [Davie] would always remember --
he said this box showed up. He was like, ‘What is this? Is this
something Michael Pillot put together as far as the production?’ …
It was just a box and it was something for Joe Son. They said it
was some extra gear, and no one really knew what it was until
[Kimo] finally walked out there with the cross on his back … . It
was actually not hatched by SEG, but of course they loved it and
the audience kind of fell in love with it.”

On why Royce Gracie
entered the Octagon against Harold Howard
instead of calling off the fight beforehand: “He’s still
under the control of Rorion [Gracie]. He’s got Relson, who’s
obviously pushing him. He’s also going through with the fact that
he didn’t have Rickson and didn’t have Royler there. Obviously
everybody’s expecting him to come out. He had everything basically
saying, ‘You’re going to go out there.’ I remember him telling me …
he got in there and said, ‘I want some watermelon juice,’ and no
one would bring him the watermelon juice. He was frustrated over
the fact like, ‘Look, guys, I’m in here. I’m going to fight, but
you’re not helping me.’ In addition to that, he couldn’t see. He
was starting to get déjà vu and his mobility was off. I think he
didn’t have the right fluids in his system. Nobody was trying to
help him with that, and then there was a conversation with him and
John McCarthy. John, of course, had trained under Rorion. He knew
Royce really well and he knew there’s something off here. … He
didn’t have the fluids, no one was helping him out, he didn’t have
the mobility, and John called it off.”